Black Dahlia Case: Trained Police Dog Confirms Past

First Posted: Feb 04, 2013 03:47 PM EST
Close

Recent investigation has shown there may be a new twist to the Black Dahlia murder.

Unsolved since 1947, a specially trained Labrador retriever, Buster, teamed up with retired police Sgt. Paul Dostie and author Steve Hodel to visit the site.

Hodel, known as the bestselling author of the "Black Dahlia Avenger" and a retired LAPD detective, searched the basement to investigate further the unsolved mystery of the grisly murder of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short.

According to the San Bernardino Sun, the Labrador detected the smell of human decomposition, which pushed the trio to further search the basement of Hodel's father, George Hill Hodel, a Los Angeles doctor who, the author believes, is the Black Dahlia killer.

It was on Jan. 15, 1947 when Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dahlia, was discovered brutally murdered in a vacant lot near the intersection of 39th St. and Norton Ave. in South Los Angeles.

The Daily Mail reports that her body had been severed at the waist and was completely drained of blood. Her face was also slashed at the corners of the mouth, and she had multiple cuts on her thighs and breasts, with entire portions of her body missing.

Her body had also been cleaned, and she was posed with her hands over her head and her legs open.

It was in November that the canine took notice of several spots in the Hollywood mansion, according to sources, where soil samples were then sent away to test for remains of Hodel's DNA.

Reports from NBC Los Angeles show that Hodel had been the principal suspect in the murders. The doctor's son believes Hodel killed Short after their romance turned sour, according to The Daily Beast. The author also points out poor detective work in the case, and he has been actively researching the murder since the death of his father in 1999.

See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone

©2017 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics